Tommy Tiernan Show recap: ‘The nation holds its breath’ - George Hamilton on that Italia ‘90 moment
Broadcaster George Hamilton spoke to Tommy Tiernan about his favourite sporting moments and his famous quote from the Italia '90 quarter finals. Photo: RTE One/Instagram.
On Saturday night, the Tommy Tiernan Show explored adoption and the importance of family, reminisced on Ireland's Italia ‘90 quarter-final penalty shootout with Romania, and how art is a lifeline for one well-known Irish singer.
Tiernan’s guests included mother-son duo Emer Halpenny and Brian Daly, broadcaster George Hamilton and singer-songwriter Lisa O’Neill.
First up for a chat with Tiernan were mother-son duo Emer Halpenny and Brian Daly who explained that they had reconnected recently after Halpenny gave her son up for adoption in 1988.
Halpenny said Daly’s father had removed himself from the equation and that while she had her family, she was otherwise very much on her own at that time in her life.
She said that after Daly was initially taken in by a foster family for eight or nine weeks, that there came a point where she decided she would keep him.
She said she would visit him every week while he was with his foster family and that when she visited for the final time with the intention of keeping him, there was an inner knowing that she was not supposed to be his mother.
“It was like going against a force of nature and I put him down and I walked away,” she said.
She said that while it was her choice and that she believed she was doing the right thing at the time, that she never forgot about her son and would cry herself to sleep around the time of his Birthday each year.
“There was always that pain,” she said.
Speaking about how he found his biological mother, Daly said his wife was fascinated when he told her that he was adopted and asked why he had not reached out to his birth family.
Daly, who lives in Canada, said his wife had the idea to reach out to Adoption Ireland and fill out a form which allowed him to access records from the time he was born to the age of eighteen.
Two weeks later he received an email with a 56-page document attached containing records with detailed notes.
From the records, he found out his mother’s name and said he searched for her on social media and a TED Talk where she spoke of giving up her baby for adoption in 1988 came up.
He said that when he was younger he questioned why he was given up for adoption and whether he was loved by his biological mother but upon seeing her TED Talk and the records from down through the years, realised that he was in fact always loved.
Speaking about why she did the TED Talk, Halpenny said that over the years, part of her coping mechanism was talking about her experience.
“I felt it was important for both mothers as well, to say we don’t forget about our babies. We’re not monsters and we don’t have a light in our heart that just turns off when you make that decision and it was important for me to tell that story. And we feel it’s important to tell the story as well, that’s why we’re here,” she said.
Halpenny spoke about how she went on to find her husband Jeff while working backstage at a theatre and how they had two daughters together.
“I’ve been extraordinarily lucky with my family. I look back and I say if I had done things differently, they wouldn’t have turned out this way. My life turned out to be a very happy one with a good husband, great girls,” she said.
Daly said that while it was weird the first time he heard Halpenny describe her life as wonderful, he said that it’s now comforting to know she had a good life and that she had never forgotten about him.
Daly also revealed that he met his biological father for the first time this week, saying he was very happy to reconnect and that they got on well.
Speaking about the future, Halpenny said: “We have a wonderful future now that we can develop our relationship and I hope to go to Canada next year but there’s still maybe even still work to do there.”
Tiernan’s next guest was commentator and broadcaster George Hamilton who spoke about growing up in Belfast, his experience commentating some of the biggest moments in sport, and his RTÉ Lyric FM shows.
He said that as an only child, his parents’ concern was that he would get himself a safe and steady staff job that would see him through to a pension at 65 but said that he had an ambition to be involved in sports broadcasting, as an avid viewer of Match of the Day on BBC.
He said it was his aunt who worked at the BBC who got him an audition which he said led to an opportunity to do a bit of commentary which he said is how “all of that started”.
“I went to London for four years and resumed with RTÉ at the end of 1984 which just preceded the appointment of Jack Charlton and those ten glory years were the making of my career, without question.”
He spoke of the “enormous privilege” it was to be part of the football family at that time and spoke of some of the highlight moments of his career including Euro ‘88 in Stuttgart when Ray Houghton put the ball in the English net and his famous Italia ‘90 commentary when David O’Leary took the kick that would decide it all.
“We had a situation where it’s a penalty shoot-out and I’d been told that RTÉ 1 is showing the Six One News and they’re going to take the shoot-out and we’re on Network 2, as it was called. So, it lodges in my head that there are only two channels in Ireland, everybody’s watching this.
“So, the four penalties are taken on the two sides and now it’s four-all and Romania step up to take the penalty and Packie Bonner saves so now it becomes if O’Leary can score this it’s gonna be a qualification for the quarter-finals.
“With all the mathematics of what’s going on and the emotion and the noise, you’re very worried that you’re going to get it wrong…. So, the picture shows O’Leary going up with the ball and the goalkeeper is ready. And David O’Leary puts the ball on the ground and it’s a close-up of O’Leary and I say “This kick can decide it all”. And it’s building the drama all the time.
“And just as he starts, prepares to take the kick, I say “The nation holds its breath”. And then he shoots and he scores.”
Hamilton said he feels privileged that he had the microphone that day.
Touching on his love for classical music, he said: “It takes you places that nothing else can. I think no other artform can take you to places music takes you. It can make you excited, it can make you feel very positive, it can make you feel very emotional and sad, almost tearful. It just has this ability to draw out of you emotions that might not come to the surface.
“They say on RTÉ Lyric FM ‘Where life sounds better’ because the music is taking you away from what may be concerning you.”
Singer-songwriter Lisa O’Neill from Cavan was Tiernan’s final guest of the night, fresh from her recent concert with the National Symphony Orchestra at the National Concert Hall.
“I couldn’t even say it was a dream come true because I wouldn’t have dreamed that far,” she said.
“But to hear your songs realised in that way… I have the imposter syndrome about songwriting and music and I still go through phases where I think they’re not really songs, they’re just musical notions.
“I don’t read music. Someone else wrote the score for me, a great man called Terry Edwards wrote the score for that. But to hear the National Symphony Orchestra take them off, it did feel like my songs went to heaven and back.”
She said that she loves work, nearly too much sometimes, and said the flow is there but that she is frustrated sometimes when she is busy as she can’t always entertain the flow.
“I like to pack up and go somewhere really, really beautiful and serene by the sea, somewhere in nature and bring all my instruments and little things that make me feel good, certain lights and things like that… scents and oils and stuff and nice food and I’d go there and go in deep for a couple of weeks. It’s a bit like time travelling, I wrote the thoughts down,” she said.
“I feel very lucky. I love singing. Maybe that’s why I love being alone because I feel like there’s a few of me.” She said that when the songs come through she wonders ‘where did you get that from?’ and spoke about how it sometimes felt like it doesn’t come from her.
“It’s mysterious. Art is a wonderful thing to have in your life. It’s a lifeline,” she said.
Touching on death and what it means to her she said: “I’ve lived a really lovely life and God forbid, but if something did happen in the next few weeks, if I had that moment of ‘this is it’ I would be like… ‘Wow, what a journey’.”
Closing out the show, O’Neill performed her song Homeless in the Thousands which explores poverty in Dublin in the digital age.
